re-flashing snes Carts

rusko · Post by **rusko** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:27 am

i was just wondering if it was possibly to re-flash a snes cart from one game to another?

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:50 am

no, to flash a cart, the cart would have to contain flash to start with. (or at least fresh prom or eprom/eeprom) carts generally contain rather standard rom chips.

of course it's possible to swap flash or different rom into a snes cart, but there are commercial products out there which are faster/better/cheaper than whatever homebrewed solution one could dream up.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:44 am

No. On regular cartridges (Super Mario World, for example), the game is stored on a ROM chip. (Read Only Memory. That's where the term "game rom" for illegally copied games comes from.) They're a lot like a CD-R; once they're burned, that's it.

You need to get a special flash cartridge for the SNES if you want to run your homebrews on a real console. It will contain either an EPROM (Eraseable Programmable Read Only Memory), or an EEPROM (Electronically Reaseable Programmable Read Only Memory) which stores the games.

As long as the boards are otherwise identical, I assume you could take one ROM chip out of one cartridge and put it in another. Why do that? I don't know, but it sounds plausible.

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:51 am

minor correction. flash carts usually contain seeprom (flash) memory. though I don't know much about the snes units. commercial products won't contain eproms, since they would need to be exposed to UV to clear.

warmachine · Post by **warmachine** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:52 am

bicostp wrote:As long as the boards are otherwise identical, I assume you could take one ROM chip out of one cartridge and put it in another. Why do that? I don't know, but it sounds plausible.

Yep, you can indeed do this with most of the SNES carts out there, but some need a little help in replacing the onboard components.
This site will tell you all you need to know for more advanced games, like Starfox 2 and SoM3. Hope it helps.

grahf · Post by **grahf** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:29 am

Thats a great site you linked to warmachine. Ive actually made a bunch of carts using that method. (I have an extra Starfox II cart if anyone is interested

).

For anyone interested in a flash cart, check out http://www.tototek.com
Its awesome having a flash cart to play fan translations on real hardware. Or even better, on real hardware..... PORTABLE!

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:24 pm

o hell yeah im interested in that starfox2 grahf

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:06 pm

Turbo Tax 1.0 wrote:o hell yeah im interested in that starfox2 grahf

I've been to for a while but I don't have an eeprom burner nor a stuntracer fx cart. However I do have the rare starfox competition. mahhahahahhahahahha

rusko · Post by **rusko** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:50 pm

does anyone know how i would find out if a rom was hi-rom, lo-rom, etc

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:05 pm

man i really want to give a seiken densetsu 3 ( i think that is what it was called

)cart a try that game is fantastic

i would've played it through on my GP2X but the snes emulation is lacking at the moment

warmachine · Post by **warmachine** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:10 pm

rusko wrote:does anyone know how i would find out if a rom was hi-rom, lo-rom, etc

You could *download*

gasp

a ROM and run it through ZSNES, which should tell you what type of ROM it is on startup. Other than that, google around for a ROM info database that provides specs on them - most credible* ROM sites, and not just somebody's geocities page, will tell you the type on the ROM's download page.

*By credible, I mean a structured, clean site that has its act together - a ROM is a ROM is a ROM, and they are of questionable legality.

Reploid Ayla · Post by **Reploid Ayla** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:31 pm

but it's for homebrew...come on!

rusko · Post by **rusko** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:24 am

well i do have the game i want to make but it currenty not working because my sister smashed it open with a hammer to get revenge. it was chrono trigger too, i spent 4 months+ trying to find the cart

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:17 am

rusko wrote:well i do have the game i want to make but it currenty not working because my sister smashed it open with a hammer to get revenge. it was chrono trigger too, i spent 4 months+ trying to find the cart

that stinks, how could someone smash such an awesome game

totokan · Post by **totokan** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:57 pm

grahf wrote:Thats a great site you linked to warmachine. Ive actually made a bunch of carts using that method. (I have an extra Starfox II cart if anyone is interested ).

For anyone interested in a flash cart, check out http://www.tototek.com
Its awesome having a flash cart to play fan translations on real hardware. Or even better, on real hardware..... PORTABLE!

Did my name just get stolen?
Heh, neoflash also has a snes cart coming out. neoflash.com